This study aims at exploring the ways project managers can communicate within a multicultural team in an IT project. The purpose is to make the project process understandable and to ensure that the instructions are perceived by everyone in the same way, regardless of their cultural differences. A qualitative study has been conducted to gain more insights from both IT project managers and team members working in Finland, France, Italy, Uganda, and the USA. The empirical findings allowed the authors to gather enough information to present a set of skills that will help project managers develop their communication abilities when working with multicultural teams in IT projects. The majority of competencies found to be useful are soft skills related to interpersonal communication and their implications for team dynamics: empathy, clarity of thought, respect and responsibility, cultural awareness, and multicultural leadership. The findings contribute to both confirming existing theories and providing new information that could be implemented in academic articles, especially concerning skills useful to project managers.

Business leaders use enterprise resource planning (ERP) to integrate and streamline business functions and processes. Each year, the majority of these projects fail due to project managers' ineffective management of the project scope. The successful implementation of ERP software enhances the flow of information in organizations and tends to improve the performance of employees and job satisfaction, resulting in improved sustainability and profitability. The Leavitt organizational change management model was used as the conceptual framework for this multiple-case study. The purpose of the study was to explore the strategies project managers in the energy sector used to implement successful ERP projects. The target population included 3 project managers from 3 energy-sector companies in the Greater Accra region of Ghana and the Nairobi region of Kenya who have successfully implemented ERP projects. Data were collected using face-to-face, semistructured interviews. Data analysis consisted of reviewing interview transcripts, grouping the data into themes, and interpreting the meaning of the themes and data. The 5 main emerging thematic categories encompass the strategies shared by the 3 participants, which were competency of the project managers, competency of the project team members, the involvement of the stakeholders, strategic practices employed and followed, and other strategies for improvement. From the perspective of positive social change, the findings of this study may provide insight that business leaders can use to improve the performance of their firms, enhance sustainability and profitability, and create employment opportunities for the community.

Project managers in the Nigerian real estate construction sector are facing challenges in delivering real estate projects profitably. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine how comprehension, motivation, skills, resources, and communication can predict project success in the real estate construction sector in Nigeria. Understanding these elements was necessary for developing project management strategies aimed at optimizing profitability. The population of the study was project management practitioners in the Nigerian real estate construction sector who are facing challenges in delivering real estate construction projects profitably. The duck alignment theory served as the theoretical framework for the study. Data collection was through a survey instrument questionnaire called the Project Implementation Profile. Multiple linear regression analysis confirmed a significant relationship between each of the 5 independent variables and the dependent variable, F(5, 70) = 216.704, p = .000, R2 = .939 upholding all the alternative hypotheses. The regression model results showed that each independent variable is a significant predictor of the dependent variable, project success at p < 0.05 and C.I. = 95% criteria. Project managers may use the findings of this study to increase the profitability of the real estate construction sector, which would translate to a business expansion resulting in an increased production of houses and housing services. The implications for positive social change may include the generation of employment for skilled and unskilled workers and the multiplier effects, which support the stimulation of sustainable economic activities in the developing economy of Nigeria.

The main purpose of this work is to create an application for project management sup-port. This application contains basic functionality of current available applications which deal with project management, but moreover adds functions such as team communication support, establishing specific roles in the system (project managers, technical specialists, resource managers, regular employees), etc. The proposed system is able to estimate time and cost of task based on knowledge database created from previous realized project.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / In recent years, project management in consulting firms has grown due to greater demands for goods and services. However, this growth has meant that due to inefficiencies in the management, delays in project delivery times are generated. In addition, the same situation occurs for performance of personnel’s competences, as well as in defining the scope of the project. Therefore, this article proposes a model for the application of Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) based on knowledge management, which consists of the following areas: stakeholder management, risk management, cost management, time management, human resources management, quality management, integration management, and scope management. To show the ease of use of this model, a case study was conducted in an engineering consulting firm. The results of the application of the model were successful: the delay in project delivery times was reduced by 70% and the risks that may exist during execution were reduced by 67%. In addition, the company highlighted the success of the application of knowledge management because it improved the interaction and skills of staff by facilitating the implementation of the model.

This research paper explores the impact of COVID-19 and the shift to remote work on project management practices across multiple industries. Through interviews with project managers, the study finds that companies with pre-existing remote work policies were better equipped to handle the transition to remote work. In contrast, companies without pre-existing policies faced increased challenges in communication, team morale, and workload management. The study also highlights the struggle to maintain work-life balance, the importance of communication, and the need to address technical difficulties. Project managers emphasized the importance of accountability and maintaining productivity during remote work. Overall, the study finds a positive shift in the collective outlook on remote work, with employees expressing a strong preference to continue working remotely even after the pandemic. The study emphasizes the evolving role of project managers in adopting a holistic approach to resolving interpersonal and managerial issues within teams during remote work.

[pt] O setor de telecomunicações no Brasil encontra-se em estágio avançado de desenvolvimento e competição, se considerarmos a transição desencadeada com a privatização das empresas do setor em 1998. Essa transição resultou em uma alteração no modelo institucional devido à introdução da concorrência na exploração dos serviços e à obrigação da universalização do acesso aos serviços básicos. Neste ambiente dinâmico, as empresas buscam competitividade e rentabilidade. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar como a metodologia de gerenciamento de projetos pode contribuir para a implementação efetiva da estratégia empresarial, de modo a assegurar e sustentar vantagem competitiva em cenários de grandes mudanças. A investigação foi desenvolvida usando a metodologia de estudo de caso e escolhendo como objeto de pesquisa a empresa EMBRATEL. Coletados por meio de investigação telematizada e levantamento de percepções com auxílio de questionários estruturados e entrevistas, os dados foram tratados com métodos quantitativos e qualitativos. A interpretação e a análise dos dados foram realizadas com base no referencial teórico e com auxílio do modelo genérico integrativo de Macedo - Soares (2001b). Dentre os resultados mais significativos, cabe destacar o fato de não estar institucionalizada na empresa a metodologia de gerenciamento de projetos e que precisam melhorar a estrutura organizacional, os sistemas de gestão e de medição e a capacitação das equipes. Recomenda-se, em particular, que a EMBRATEL desenvolva uma metodologia corporativa em gerenciamento de projetos integrada ao sistema de medição para implementação, acompanhamento e controle das ações estratégicas. / [en] The telecommunication industry in Brazil has evolved to an advanced state and growing competitiveness since the privatization of the sector in 1998. In the last six years, the Brazilian telecommunication system has progressed from inefficient and outdated to world class. To succeed in the current highly competitive environment, telecommunication service providers must focus their strategy on their market and clients. These firms must be able to implement strategies that assure the quality of their products and services and client satisfaction. The objective of this research is to assess how project management can contribute to effective strategy implementation to guarantee and sustain competitive advantage in a dynamic environment. The investigation follows a case study format, and its object of study is the Brazilian telecommunication company EMBRATEL. Instruments of data collection range from documental/telematic compilations to perception survey through structured questionnaires and interviews. Data analysis, based on both quantitative and qualitative methods, and interpretation were based on academic references, based on research of available literature, and in most part with the support of the systemic and integrative model developed by Macedo-Soares (2001b). Among the most significant results, it fits to highlight the fact of the company doesn´t have a well- implemented project management methodology. It was recommended that EMBRATEL should develop a corporate methodology in projects management, based on the best practices of the market and integrated into the measure system for control of the strategic actions.

This thesis describes a research project that investigates the level of contextualization needed to successfully build context-driven agents that can manage a cooperative project. Many times in industry, collaborators in a large project may be located vast distances from each other. It is for this reason that management of such projects can often be difficult. The purpose of this research is to design an agent that can take on the role of a project manager (PM) to assist the human project manager. Specifically, this thesis looks to give such project management agents full situational awareness. It is hypothesized that only with situational awareness can an agent successfully act in the role of a project manager. This thesis describes the investigation into the use of Context-Based Reasoning and Contextual Graphs to create an agent with such situational awareness. This thesis shows that with enough situational awareness, an agent will have the ability to successfully take on the role of a project manager. In particular, this thesis looks at a PM-agent that can manage a simulated project to design and construct a small sounding rocket.

The main drivers for this research are the complexities associated with the project management and an organization's project management style in dealing with these complexities. This research aims to demonstrate that alignment between project complexity and project management style increases project performance and decreases project issues, and also, with increased project issues, project performance deteriorates. In order to test these claims, this research developed measures for assessing project complexity, project management styles and project issues by employing a survey of project management professionals. The measure for project complexity is based on a taxonomy with four categories: organizational complexity, product complexity, methods (process) complexity and goal complexity. Project management style is defined as the management paradigm that guides the managers of an organization in perceiving and dealing with management problems. The measure for project nagement style is based on the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle and the Newtonian and complexity paradigms. Also the measures for project issues are developed after an extensive content analysis on the literature on project issues, risks and success factors. A self-administered survey instrument (paper-based and on-line) with 40 questions (seven point Likert scale) was utilized. The respondents were the project management professionals from different industries in the Central Florida region. Each respondent was asked to answer questions for two different kinds of projects: a successful project and a challenged project. Based on the data collected by the survey instrument, the results of confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses provide strong evidence that the final measures for project technology complexity, project management styles, project issues and project performance have adequate validity and reliability. Results of the hypothesis tests demonstrate that increased alignment of project complexity and project management style leads to increased project performance and decreased project issues, and also increased project issues leads to project decreased performance. From the perspective of project management, the results of this study have illustrated the importance of aligning a project's complexity and management style. These results suggest that project or program managers can improve the performance of their projects by any attempt to increase the alignment between project complexity and project management style. Project management professionals and theoreticians can use the methodologies provided in this dissertation to assess project complexity, project management style and alignment.

Since the beginning of project management, people have been asked to perform "more with less" in expeditious time while attempting to balance the inevitable challenge of the time/cost tradeoff. This is especially true within the Department of Defense today in prosecuting the Global War on Terrorism both in Afghanistan and Iraq. An unprecedented and consistent level of Operational Tempo has generated heavy demands on current equipment and has subsequently forced the need to recapitalize several legacy systems until suitable replacements can be implemented. This paper targets the UH-60A:A Recapitalization Program based at the Corpus Christi Army Depot in Corpus Christi, Texas. More specifically, we examine one of the nine existing project sub-networks within the UH-60A:A program, the structural/electrical upgrade phase. In crashing (i.e. adding manpower or labor hours) the network, we determine the minimal cost required to reduce the total completion time of the 68 activities within the network before a target completion time. A linear programming model is formulated and then solved for alternative scenarios. The first scenario is prescribed by the program manager and consists of simply hiring additional contractors to augment the existing personnel. The second and third scenarios consist of examining the effects of overtime, both in an aggressive situation (with limited longevity) and a more moderate situation (displaying greater sustainability over time). The initial linear programming model (Scenario 1) is crashed using estimates given from the program scheduler. The overtime models are crashed using reduced-time crash estimates. For Scenarios 2 and 3, the crashable times themselves are reduced by 50% and 75%, respectively. Initial results indicate that a completion time of 79.5 days is possible without crashing any activities in the network. The five-year historical average completion time is 156 days for this network. We continue to crash the network in each of the three scenarios and determine that the absolute shortest feasible completion times, 73 days for Scenario 1, 76 days for Scenario 2, and 77.5 days for Scenario 3. We further examine the models to observe similarities and differences in which activities get targeted for crashing and how that reduction affects the critical path of the network. These results suggests an in-depth study of using linear programming and applying it to project networks to grant project managers more critical insight that may help them better achieve their respective objectives. This work may also be useful as the groundwork for further refinement and application for maintenance managers conducting day-to-day unit level maintenance operations.